I am dealing with hardship right now for probably the first time in my life.

I know I am not the only person in bad shape right now. Things were actually looking up when I got my first trucking job. It was a plum job; I got to be home nights. I put in some long days, but it was nice to be able to come home. After several months waiting for a trainer, and then completing my training, I thought I could finally take a deep breath and make some headway on my bills.

Six weeks into the job, I caught pneumonia. I just thought it was a bad cold, except it didn't get any better. The last night I worked, I had a pain on the left side of my chest. I still worked, and accidentally backed into a fence. I started to cry. I tried to keep on working even though I was sick, because I was new and didn't want to seem like a slacker. I was upset that I backed into the fence. If I'd just stayed home like I wanted (and needed to) it never would have happened and I might still have my job today.

Anyway, when I got back that night, I said I wasn't available for another load for a week, as I needed to recover from whatever it was I had, which ended up being pneumonia. After I got well, I looked through my mail and saw that my CDL had been disqualified. Turns out I needed to turn in a form to the state, that was all. So I got the information to them and got my CDL reinstated, and call work to ask for a load. They then tell me I no longer have a position there. I call the company and go to one of the terminals to be reassigned a truck and a new route. They have me go through a safety review on the accident I had with the fence, but then they also ask me about the time in mid-February that I got stuck in the snow. When I told my former truck driving trainer this was being considered an "accident," she was floored. She couldn't believe the "safety" practices of this company, which encourages drivers if they get into a sticky spot, to call the company's "lifeline." So after I recall the details of these accidents, which happened more than a month ago, I find out I have to do an in-cab evaluation, which consists of a road test. I hadn't been on the road for several weeks, so it figures that I would be a bit rusty. I thought I did okay on the road, but my examiner felt otherwise. Then she has me back into a spot. I end up bumping a trailer, and based on that plus my previous accidents and my less-than-perfect road test, I was terminated. I've probably applied to 20 jobs or temp agencies

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